This page explains how we check what we publish. The first part applies to every page. The second part applies to our VPN and tool reviews.

How we check every page

  1. Primary sources first. We start from the company’s own page, an official breach notice, a government filing, a report or a study. We use a secondary source only when no primary source exists, and we label it with its name and date.
  2. Every figure has a date. Each figure comes with a link and the date we checked it, such as “as of October 26, 2026.” You find them in the text or in the Sources list at the end of the page.
  3. Attackers’ claims wait. If a breach is announced only by the attackers, we wait for a primary source: the organization’s own notice, or a filing with a state attorney general, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or the Department of Health and Human Services. We do not name a group or a government behind an attack without an official source.
  4. A verification check before publication. A separate verification pass, also run with AI tools, goes back to every source and compares it with what the page says. Anthony Russo is responsible for everything we publish.
  5. Short quotes only. We quote two sentences at most, in quotation marks, with a link. Otherwise we paraphrase and say who said it.
  6. Corrections in the open. When a fact turns out to be wrong, we fix it with a dated note on the page. See our corrections policy.

How we review VPNs and tools

We have not run our own lab tests yet. A review on this site brings together independent tests and audits that other people have published, and it says which ones.

  • Published tests and audits. Each review lists the independent tests and audits it rests on, the dates they were published, and the day we checked the provider’s official pages.
  • Who owns whom. When we cite a test by a publication that belongs to a VPN’s parent company, or that earns commissions itself, we say so. We check who owns the brands and the testers we cite.
  • No “we tested” without a test. We never write that we tested a product unless we did.
  • The same method for every provider. A product that pays us nothing is rated by the same method as one that does. See our advertising disclosure.

The scoring grid

Our scoring grid for VPNs is not published yet. We will publish it, with its criteria and the weight of each, together with our first VPN review. Until then, no VPN on this site has a score.

Think we got something wrong? Tell us through our contact page.